EXCLUSIVE: Lost In The Night, the latest film from Mexican filmmaker Amat Escalante (Heli, The Untamed), was a late edition to this year’s Cannes line-up, and today Deadline can share the first official trailer for the pic.
Directed by Escalante from a screenplay he also wrote, the film stars an ensemble cast, including Juan Daniel Garcia (I’m No Longer Here), Barbara Mori (Against the Wind), Ester Exposito (Elite), Fernando Bonilla (An Unknown Enemy), and Maria Fernanda Osio (The Traitor).
The pic debuts in the Cannes Premiere section, with The Match Factory handling sales. Plot follows Emiliano, who lives in a small mining town in Mexico. Motivated by a deep sense of justice, he searches for those responsible for the disappearance of his activist mother, who was standing up for local jobs against an international mining company. Receiving no help from the police or judicial system, he finds a clue that leads him to the wealthy Aldama Family, where he meets a famous artist, his celebrity wife, and their beautiful daughter. It’s not long before he has a job at their home and becomes determined to uncover the secrets beneath the surface.
Escalante produced the pic alongside Nicolás Celis and Fernanda de la Peza. The filmmaker was last in Cannes in 2013 with Heli, a taut caper that won him the Best Director award. He has screened three films at the fest. His last feature, 2016’s The Untamed, debuted at Venice, where Escalante also nabbed the Best Director gong. The film went on to be Mexico’s pic for the International Feature Oscar.
Introducing Lost In The Night, Escalante said the story focuses on Emiliano, a young man seeking justice. Through that premise, the filmmaker said he aimed to “explore how the desire for revenge becomes the driving force of a person’s existence to the point of clouding reason.”
“As the plot takes place in a country where impunity prevails and a society in which there is enormous class inequality, the search for justice becomes a complicated and dangerous effort,” he said.
Lost in the Night, he added, “is a film in which tenderness, cruelty, and a sense of humor coexist with each other.”
Check out the full trailer above.
